Opening Night

The opening night of the design conference went really well. I snapped a few photos, which I will be posting as soon as I can. If you missed opening night, stop in for the encore that takes place this coming Saturday (05-03) at 7:00. Hope to see you then.

Design Talk Tonight -- Opening Night!

Stop by the DesignbySolo studios tonight for opening night of the design talk. Everything is taking off at 7:00 pm (lasting till 11:00). Hope to see you here.

Upcoming Event -- Design Talk

Want to announce a design talk I will be hosting at my design studio in the Cincinnati Area (hosted/funded by DesignbySolo). Several key speakers will be present and doing separate design presentations. I will be giving a presentation entitled, The Art of Graphic Design as Through the Eyes of One Man (long title, I know...) and some friends will be making presentations entitled, Print as Design, Today and Helvetica, Wacom, and Everything inn Between. Opening night will be 4-26-08 (this coming Saturday) and an encore conference will be held the next weekend, 05-03-08 (both starting at 7:00pm and lasting until 11:00pm). The poster above has details about the event and will be printed as a limited edition of only 100 worldwide. Contact me to order an event poster, US size, 24x36.

Breaking Down Complexity

Here is something you might want to read if you have some spare time. This is an interview posted on Tshirt Island about DesignbySolo clothing. The article talks about my Japanese influences, especially Sesshu Toyo (a favorite). Read full article here...

Design A Green Bag!

Kroger food store is hosting a design contest called/at designagreenbag.com. They are trying to stop the waste of plastic bags by promoting cloth bags (with winning designs printed on them). This is a great endeavor and a fun contest. Kroger estimates that by using a cloth bag, 1000 plastic bags will not be used within a year period. Also, by entering the contest you automatically get a free cloth bag that you can pick up next time you go into a Kroger store. Above is my design for the contest. I would really appreciate it if you would go here and vote for my bag (you can vote once a day). Thanks.

2008 Calendar

I have seen several nice, creative calendars on the net lately and since I didn't have a 2008 calendar, I was inspired to design one. I know I am a little late but the thought of designing my own calendar never came to me until lately. I found a really great semi-condensed font that worked out perfectly for the design. Hope you enjoy. Let me know if you like the calendar and I will send you a copy of the file so you can print it out and never be without a date again.

FITC Toronto 2008

The FITC design festival is going on right now (April 19-22) in Toronto, Canada. All kinds of graphic design, motion design, etc. speakers will be presenting at the festival including North Kingdom, ISO50, etc. If you are attending the festival or have attended any of the past events, I would love to hear from you about your experience.

New Layout

As you see (unless this is your first time here) I have implemented a new layout for the Solo design blog. The original layout was only meant to be temporary until I got around to coming up with a more permanent design. The old layout used the color scheme from my portfolio and the header from the Solo print studio... Therefore I redesigned a new header (complimentary of a new Solo typographic-based identity, S/) and several new color schemes (the one that is on display now is called the "White Theme.") Hopefully this will be the theme that I keep for a while, though the color schemes will most likely be interchanged periodically.

Inspiration -- 8

Some more really nice examples of hand-drawn (and other) typography. Really creative work with the hands.

Inspiration -- 7

A really nice illustration with hand-drawn text. Great vintage colors and texture to it. Found on FFFFound!

Image of the Week -- Wk.12

Spring is Back!!

Solo Archive Work -- 10

This is a logo design I did for a Southern Ohio based campground/resort. It is very rustic, located in the middle of nowhere, nestled within 300 acres of woods and hills (a great photo spot). The grounds were recently opened and I handled all aspects of the identity and design, from signage to postage. I have included some of the works I was commissioned to put together to show the logotype in action.

OFFF Lisbon '08

Sorry I haven't posted anything during the past few days... It's been busy. Since I have been gone I got an email notifying me that my submission for the OFFF Lisbon '08 Catalog (under the theme, a wi-fi, a wi-fi, my kingdom for a wi-fi) has been excepted and will be printed for the festival. Very Exciting news, I just wish I had the time/money to fly to Portugal for the event.

Essence Featured!

My print, entitled Essence was featured in Blanket Magazine's issue 9 (Music Issue). "Blanket is a free PDF art + design + photography magazine that is released bi-monthly. It is aimed at uncovering new, emerging talent from around the world." A pdf version of the magazine can be downloaded at the Blanket website, with my print featured on page 57 of the magazine. The Essence print is available for purchase in a variety of formats at the Solo shop.